Year: 2004

Since last time, “Pirates” has already had 5 very successful showings, and in my position of the pianist’s page turner, I get to observe (occasionally) the cast onstage in their roles, and we (the pit crew) notice every single dropped line and missed beat. It’s not a big deal, but it gets ridiculously humorous when you know what should have just happened, and something else happened insted.
Last night, one of the pirates, while advancing threateningly downstage in “With Cat-like Tread” actually kneeled and tickled my head with the tip of his sword. In the spirit of the event, I immediately ducked back, and the audience loved it. Another one was “fencing” with the drummer (using his drumstick).
It was a little way for us to get involved, as the pirates interact a bit with the audience when coming down from the back of the theater when they make their big entrance.
I love theater, and hope to participate in more to come, as it may.
Due to the extreme time requirements by the director of “What’s Wrong with This Picture?” I have dropped out, even tough it was a lead role, and a huge production. I just can’t commit at least 3 nights a week for the next 4 months to rehearsal time.
Had the pleasure of seeing and at the last “Romeo & Juliet” rehearsal to meausre people for their costumes.
I will be playing Prince Escalus, whom, if you remember, is just a pompous voice of sanity that occasionally appears to set things straight, in the name of the law. It’snot a large part, but it’s something I can handle for now.
Also understudying my friend JB, on his part of “Brindsley” in “Black Comedy”, so if for any reason he can’t do it, I will step in. It’s more about being involved then actually getting stage time.
(He asked me if I would be pissed at him if I don’t get to do it at all. I laughed and said, “What’s the point of an understudy?”)
I’m thinking of getting more active in the directorial/production side of community theater, to work with and observe other directors’ and producers’ techniques, in hopes that someday I might be able to put a show of MY choosing on, and have it done the way I want it done. One can dream.
At work, we have re-arranged the offices a bit, and have moved me and my direct boss into our own corner office, with two HUGE windows, as opposed to the three of us in a large room with NO external light.
It seperates the third guy from us at this time, but he’s more part of another department (we overlap jobs) than mine. He’s alone, but his partner-in-crime will be returning at the end of the month, on a part-time status (she just gave birth).
The office arrangement is kind of nice, as I also have a nice balcony right off of my office door, and with my cordless phone and headset, I can spend some time out there. It also lets me berate my boss at leisure, and he’s acutely aware of that. 😉 I’m also establishing my position of “King of Order and Organization” (insert laugh-track here from everyone who knows me outside of the professional world), and at this week’s meeting with the entire larger department and CTO, it has finally been acknowledged and I have been prompted to “Keep up the Good Work”.
Note: This is after I have warned a lot of people that I am starting an Order Crusade, and no one shall escape the long arm (voice?) of The Mike. I even dropped in on the CTO unexpectedly and pointed out two of his own offenses.
Work/Lifestyle digression:
I have a strong work ethic, in that I believe that if by my efforts, 1. The company profits, and I have a better chance of receiving a bonus/raise/promotion/free ticket somewhere; and 2. by not letting things slack, and cleaning up the general mess, I have more time to dedicate to improving self-assigned tasks that will improve company functioning.
One of the programmers was hanging out in my office for a few days, as he was working on something with my boss, and he finally realized how much work DOES get done in our little office, and how much we prevent from actually being escalated to the development level. I don’t think everyone gets that. If every problem I receive immediately was routed to the development dept., they would never get any real work done, and prouct enhancement/new products would never move.
I have had three personal work victories this week, and it seems like I have had the honor of becoming primary liason with most of our larger customers. For some reason, they keep coming back to me. Is it because I find the quick solution to a problem that has been lying around for months on end by pressing three buttons? Or is it because I use the “friendly, but don’t you dare give me shit” attitude? I don’t know. Maybe a mesh of the two.
My boss is the King of Politeness when it comes to customers. He tries to put everything in a very polite, nice and flowery written tone. “Please”, “kindly” and “thank you” are liberally spattered in his communications. Is that the tone that is needed? Do we need to plead with customers, or browbeat them into doing what we want? Or, again, is it a mix of the two?
Continuing work digression onto personality question:
Am I overly militant?
I describe work to others and to myself as a “war”. The enemy is Failure, which can be viewed as problematic customers, problematic developers and the common “no idea what is wrong”. Each day is comprised of many small battles, with my goal to reach victory speedily as possible, with a minimum of “deaths” (time loss, customer unhapiness, etc). I am determined to clean the system up, and bring us all to a point where the right information is readily accessible (personal motto: “If you can’t find it in 30 seconds or less, it’s useless”) and we have more time to dedicate to improvement of an already good system.
If the system needs to be changed, I am in a position where my voice counts. One of the guys (the inter-departmental one) is happy to follow orders, “Just tell me how you want it done” syndrome. Too passive? Or am I too agressive? I figure, if there is a problem in the system, first it has to be recognized as a problem, and if I have any ideas on how to solve/improve it, I am actually heard, and considered.
In the past, I’ve tried to keep as much bitching and moaning to an informal level, i.e. not entering it into the “etched-into-stone” system, but I can see that that doesn’t work. I’ve begun to play the game by their rules (fight the battle on their terms?) and the tide seems to be turning.
In any case, I am treating this job as a career, not as something to hold me for now, but as a place that offers opportunity possibilities in the future.

Done with digressing, I have been examining my own life for a bit now, and am coming to a few realizations.
1. I am overweight. I know this, and have finally decided on a few possible plans of action to help myself obtain results. I haven’t had a drop of Coca-Cola for two weeks now, and have finally treated myself to one (1!) bottle for the weekend. There is a gym accross the street from my office, and another guy goes there every day during his lunch hour to work out. I am seriously thinking about joining him. A friend of mine is beginnig to teach an Irish dance class soon at Hebrew U one night a week, and I might join it, as it is one hell of a workout. I also am trying to eat more salads and less junk. Water.
2. Financially, I am about the same spot I was a year ago. This is due to the fact that I was enemployed for about 7 months in the last 12. This situation has basically put me back one year, with less pay, and higher inflation rate. I have tried to live as minimalistically as I feel that I can, and am making some headway. Stability and prosperousness to come.
3. I am utterly confused by the opposite gender. Need I say more?

Putting this in writing (typing) seems to be highly therapaeutic. Don’t know why.

A while back, posed the now-familiar 5 question interview to me, and I sincerely apologize that I have not held up my end of the bargain to answer him. I hope to do so soon, it’s just that the questions he asked have actually made me think more than I thought they would, and I am hard-pressed to come up with answers yet. Kudos to you, Josh. Make ME think! I shall charge you for the processor usage. 🙂

Regarding online journals (or “The dangers of public knowledge”):
A long time ago, I had a journal on OpenDiary.com. I wrote there quite often, and got some interesting replies on posts, and actually started reading other people’s posts.
I particularly liked the concept of total anonymity, which was what I had then, as nobody knew me, and I didn’t know anyone else (that I knew of 😉 ).
At some point, I wrote about an experience, and mentioned a person’s name, related to the experience. Soon after, I received a comment from someone who apparently knew the person in quetion, and we got to talking, and eventually met face-to-face, and then things didn’t work out.
Shortly after, I stopped writing there.
For some reason, I could no longer be open and honest with myself in public area, and I was extremely uncomfortable with that.
From that point forward, I realized that if I want a personal journal, keep it private. “Two people cannot share a secret, only one can.”
My take on the purpose of this is exactly as stated: An online community.
Here, I talk about the things I would discuss with my pals, shoot the shit, etc. It’s a different kind of open-ness, but at least this one makes sense to me now.

In any case, I think I’ve rambled on long enough, and I bet none of you actually read everything I’ve just been plugging in using my own two hands, eyes, and brain. If you have, I am impressed that you could actually sit this long.

Until next time, on the same Bat-channel……